CRISIS

UN: Syria Death Toll at 60K

After 21 months of fighting.

The United Nations released an estimate Wednesday that roughly 60,000 people have been killed in the ongoing Syrian civil war since it began March 2011. The new count is a third higher than other estimates by anti-regime activists, which are closer to 45,000. The number was reviewed independently, and compared death tolls from multiple sources. "The number of casualties is much higher than we expected, and is truly shocking," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement. "Collectively, we have fiddled at the edges while Syria burns." Earlier today, dozens were killed after Syrian warplanes bombed a gas station near Damascus.